Animorphs: What if?
by waterlily899
Summary: ORIGIONALLY POSTED UNDER THE PEN NAME snoopysox13. What if it were actually possible to change, well, your species? Four kids, one potion, one mad man and a whole lot of trouble... R


Have you ever heard of the book series called Animorphs? You know the one with the Yeerks, Andalites, and morphing powers? Did you ever stop to think about what it would be like if someone actually had that kind of power? Well that's what one man thought of. This man was a retired scientist named Dr. William Exley. Dr. Exley had been a successful scientist, one of the smartest people at the lab where he studied. Then one day, he just lost it. Exley began mixing explosive chemicals together, pulling fire alarms, setting off the fire-sprinkler systems, and countless other "accidents" that could have proven to be fatal to whoever was misfortuned to be there when it went off. After a few days of this, the Board of health decided that he was unfit to continue working in that type of environment. They forced him to retire and Exley reluctantly left.

After a year and a half of planning and stealing from his old job, Exley had built a lab in his basement that contained equipment for any type of experiment you could think of. His first project was the idea he had gotten after skimming through an Animorphs book; the first idea that his colleagues had ever turned down (not to mention laughed at): creating a solution that would give humans the ability to transform into any other species after acquiring it's DNA. Just like the book. As he got to work, showing off his new project to his colleagues was the only thing on Exley's mind.

Several months later at the beginning of the summer, Exley had finished the solution. He knew it was right because through his studies, it was determined that the finished product would be a deep shade of red and slightly carbonated. Since it was identical to cherry soda, Exley found four long necked glass bottles and filled each to the top with the bubbling concoction. He even added cherry flavoring so if anyone tried to steal it, it would give off the aroma of its disguise and the thief will pass right over it. Exley placed it in the refrigerator with the other drinks and went to watch television, congratulating himself on the achievement.

Several months later at the beginning of the summer, Exley had finished the solution. He knew it was right because through his studies, it was determined that the finished product would be a deep shade of red and slightly carbonated. Since it was identical to cherry soda, Exley found four long necked glass bottles and filled each to the top with the bubbling concoction. He even added cherry flavoring so if anyone tried to steal it, it would give off the aroma of its disguise and the thief will pass right over it. Exley placed it in the refrigerator with the other drinks and went to watch television, congratulating himself on the achievement.

At about ten o'clock that night, there was a knock at the door. It was two policemen. After Exley confirmed who he was, the taller of the two began to explain that they were there because they had a warrant for his arrest for multiple robberies at the lab. Almost at once, Exley's insanity kicked in. He tried to make a dash to the kitchen to drink the solution so that when he was in jail, he could transform into a fly and escape. But this foolish decision proved to be his downfall. The two officers secured a struggling Exley by the arms and took him to the squad car where he would then be taken to the station. Exley had never told anybody about it concoction, so no one thought twice when they saw, and heard, him being dragged from his house like a child from a toy store. Every one who witnessed his capture knew that he had gone insane and expected something like this to happen sooner rather than later.

That's where we come in. By 'we', I mean my friends Kyle, Faith, and Mark and me. We've been best friends ever since we were little and now that we've just finished our first year of high school, nothing's changed.

Faith Carter

Age: 14

Height: 5' 7"

Hair: Red

Eyes: Blue

Siblings: 1; Jason, 12

Other: Never ceases to amaze with cunning, courage, and wits. Very lively.

Matt Zades

Age: 15

Height: 5'9"

Hair: Light brown

Eyes: Brown

Siblings: 1; Katie, 17

Other: Passed High school with straight A's in 4 months, but stayed behind to be with friends. Has built a lab in his basement that's more advanced than rocket science.

Mark Neil

Age: 14

Height: 6' 1"

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Brown

Siblings: None

Other: Good w/kids. One of the best on the school wrestling team. The 'muscles' of the group and _proud _of it.

Mercedes Ryan (me)

Age: 14

Height; 5'9"

Hair: Dark brown

Eyes: Brown

Siblings: 2; Nick and Nathan, 11 and 2

Other: Unofficial leader;

It was the week after school let out for the summer after our freshman year and Faith, Matt and Mark and I were riding our bikes around the neighborhood, racing, laughing, and just having fun.

Then Mark stopped in front of one house in particular.

"Hey, that's Exley's house, right?"

"Yup," I replied. " He was arrested two nights ago for stealing equipment from the lab where he used to work."

"So it's abandoned?" Matt asked, giving Mark a mischievous grin, which he returned.

" What's going on?" Faith demanded.

"Nothing," Matt smiled, " we're just kidding! C'mon, let's go take a look inside."

Inside of Exley's house was just as bad as looking at Nick's room; it looked as if a tornado had swept through the whole house- every room except the kitchen, that is. It was spotless. I thought there was going to be mixing bowls filled with old food or things splattered all over the walls, almost as if Exley had never used it. Even the faucet and its handles were like new.

"Anyone thirsty?" Mark was standing at the open refrigerator holding 4 unmarked bottles of what resembled cherry soda.

When I took the first sip of the drink, I noticed that there was something different about it… but I didn't give it a second thought and walked through the house, finishing off the bottle. About 15 minutes later, we all met back in the kitchen and threw away the glass containers.

Faith walked around the room while we all talk about what we've seen. 'Hey, there's a door here!"

It was in the very back of the kitchen hidden next to a cabinet. Faith opened it and flipped the light switch on the wall; a blinding light came shooting up the stairs. Once my eyes grew accustomed the brightness, I started down the long staircase. My jaw almost dropped when I saw the basement. Right in the middle of the white and chrome colored room was a long counter top that held beakers and test tubes of all different shapes and sizes. I walked around the counter looking at the endless maze of tubes and liquids.

In my curiosity, I almost ran into a table that held mounds of papers with a myriad of mathematical symbols.

"Matt," I motioned for him to come here without turning around. "Come and look at something."

He studied the papers carefully (within a few seconds, Mark and Faith had wandered over and were standing on either side of us.

"This doesn't make any sense... I mean, it does, but it's not logical." Matt picked up another paper.

"What is it?" Faith wondered.

"Well, according to this... it's supposed to be a formula that can let humans transform into any other species and then back again- if that makes any sense."

The whole concept sounded familiar. Then I suddenly got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. "Does it say what it's supposed to look like?"

After a few more seconds of reading over the data, Matt ran his fingers back through his hair, "Oh, crud."

"What?" Mark was now the one who was almost frantic.

"It's meant to have a dark-red coloring and slightly carbonated; almost identical to-"

"-Cherry soda," I finished.

"You have _got _to be kidding me!" Mark said to no one in particular.

"C'mon you guys, let's just get out of here before we mess anything else up." I started towards the stairs

My friends eagerly followed.

When we were a few feet from the door, I stopped dead in my tracks.

"What's wrong?" Faith asked. I see things that my friends can't.

"Someone's coming into the house!" I whispered. "We've got to get out of here! C'mon!"

As we turned around to try and escape, I heard the light jingling of keys.

We ran through the house, I lead, trying to find a back door. Finally, in the back of the kitchen, we found it. Bad news: it was locked.

"Man! This guy doesn't trust anybody does he?" Mark held up the pad-lock.

"What do you think you're doing?!" My friends and I whipped around. Exley was the last person I wanted to see, be there he was- standing before us, red-faced and looking like he'd kill.

" I am aware of your intentions." Exley became suddenly serious. "You are here to retrieve the power you have given to Earth in its time of need."

It finally hit me.

"Guys! Remember that book we read a while ago? Animorphs? He thinks that we're aliens," I whispered.

"You cannot fool me!" He looked down into the garbage and saw the empty "soda" bottles. Exley looked back at us like he wanted to do the unthinkable.

I decided to play along, "Foolish creature! We are conquerors of worlds and you are but a mere human. How _dare_ you question our authority!?"

"If you are so powerful, why must you hide behind the disguise of a such a weak creature? Return to your natural form," he picked up a big, and I mean _big_, knife, "and we shall see which is the more powerful of the species."

"Follow me!" I whispered to my frightened friends. I charged past Exley, knocking him to the ground and the blade out of his hand.

We practically flew out of that place and down the street to Matt's house where we crashed in the extra room in his lab that he had built for just that. Faith and I collapsed on the couch while the guys took the bunk beds.

"What the heck was that all about?" Mark half demanded to know.

"All right, all right." I began, not even trying to sit up straight, "You know how Exley isn't exactly all together mentally?"

"Yeah, he's one chicken nugget short of a Happy Meal," Faith said. "So what does that have to do with his trying to kill us?"

"He made the solution based on the book Animorphs and when he caught us in the kitchen with the empty bottles, he must have thought that-"

"That we were the Andalites and we were there to take back the morphing power?" Matt finished, staring up at the ceiling.

"But Exley really made that stuff we drank in his basement lab?" Mark added.

"Uh, huh." I replied.

"But what do you think he'll try do now?" Faith wondered. Every one looked right at me.

"I don't have a clue," I sighed.

"What about that morphing thing?" Mark asked.

"Well, if Exley made the solution the right way," Matt said, "then we should be able to change into another animal like Mercedes said."

"Do you guys want to try it?" Faith questioned, looking around at the rest of us.

"Sure," I volunteered. "Why not?"

"Okay", the guys said together,

"I remember something in the book the said it takes a while before you can morph in your clothes," Matt suggested.

"All right, then, Faith and will go over to my house to try it and you guys stay here," I said.

"Okay," Matt was already searching through a closet for a copy of the book.

"What do we do first?" Faith asked me.

We were sitting on my bed in my room looking through a copy of Animorphs; I think that it was the first book of the series.

"Well," I flipped through the pages, looking for some kind if instruction on how to, well, morph. "From what I remember, there was a page that told you what they did the very first time _they _tried it."

"Wait! Go back, I think I saw something," she burst out all of a sudden.

"Where was it?" I went back one page at a time until Faith stopped me.

She read the passage aloud.

"So all we have to do is concentrate on becoming that animal and then the rest will happen on its own?" I wondered, putting down the book.

"I guess," Faith said. "Do you want to go first?"

"It doesn't matter, you can if you'd like."

"Okay." She got up and walked over the corner of my room. That was where I kept Cookie's (my pet parakeet) cage. Faith reached inside the door and reached her arm in, and Cookie who knew my friend and jumped onto her finger.

"So all you have to do to acquire an animal's DNA is touch it?" Faith stroked Cookie's back.

"Yeah, and then you just concentrate one becoming that animal."

"Alright," she put the bird back into its cage.

Faith just stood there for a minute staring at the wall in front of her, not blinking at all. Then she began to shrink. I couldn't believe it at first; I thought I was going crazy. But, no; Faith was shrinking and growing feathers all over her arms and legs at the same time. Her mouth was now a beak and she was just about done when...

_Mom walking down the hall; coming to check up on us._

"Oh, crud, my mom's coming quick go under my bed!" I whispered as I lifted up the end of the comforter on my bed and Faith hopped under it. I grabbed a magazine from my nightstand and began "reading" it just as my mom came in the room.

"You girls okay up here?" She asked cheerfully.

"Yup," I turned the page, just as cheerfully as Mom was.

"Where's Faith?" She asked me looking around.

"Oh… Uh… she in the bathroom," I said, nervously.

"Okay, then. Call if you need anything."

Then she left. I sighed with relief.

This is SO cool! Faith said, well, kind of.

"I guess it's like the book said," I began. "When you're in a morph, you thought-speak."

Hey, I forgot all about that! C'mon, we've got to go show the guys, Faith started hopping towards the door.

"Hey! Hold on a minute! Don't you think that you should change back?" I caught her.

Oh, Faith, laughed, good idea.

After she changed back to normal, Faith and I rode over to Kyle's house. It had been over 2 and a half-hours since we've last seen them, so we thought it would be safe.

"Hey, Kyle! Mark! It's us!" Faith called through the lab's back door as we walked in.

"Back here!" Mark called from the Crash Room.

"We walked in to see the guys sitting on the bunk beds snacking.

"So," I started, "We're you two able to morph or anything?"

"You have no idea! It was SO awesome!" Kyle said. He hasn't sounded that exited about anything since he built his lab back in 7th grade!

"As you can tell, _he_ was the first to do it, " Mark laughed. " I tried it too. It was the best!"

"Wait a minute," I said seriously, "This is great and all, but what are we going to do about Exley?" I sat down on the sofa.

"Oh, geez," Faith sat next to me. "I forgot all about that."

"Well, we don't know what he'll do. He might just forget about this whole thing," Matt started.

"Or," Mark stared into the ceiling, "He could keep believing that we're space aliens and come after us to try to kill us."

"Good old Mark," Faith smiled, " Always looking on the bright side."

"But he's right," I turned to my friends. "Exley is insane and unpredictable. For all we know, he could be stalking us right now outside of the lab, or he could be at home watching Wheel of Fortune and screaming at the TV. We just don't-" I froze.

_Wrench opening window, lab window. Test tubes breaking; shattering. Darkness, familiar stranger._

"What is it?" Mark asked. Every one looked to me.

"It- it was nothing, " I said, obviously lying.

"C'mon, Mercedes," Faith said. "We know what happens when you get that glazed look in your eyes. Now spit it out."

"All right. Some one is going to break into the lab," I caved.

"Matt, are all the windows locked?" Mark asked.

"Yup. Even if somebody _did _manage to break the glass, there is a second layer of metal wires so they'd never get in." He explained.

I looked out into the dark lab. Matt hadn't turned on any of the lights so the moonlight was the only thing that lit the large room. "It's getting really dark. We should get going before we can't even see the road."

"Good idea," Faith stood up and Mark followed. We all said goodbye and were headed towards the door.

Right as Faith was reaching for the doorknob, something in the back of my mind screamed at me to stop her from going outside.

"No! Stop!" I screamed as Faith opened the door. I stepped in and slammed the door shut.

"What?" They all asked frantically. "What is it? What's going on?"

"Somebody's outside!" I gasped.

"Well, you all are welcomed to spend the night here," Matt said. I was relieved that he offered because I didn't want to go out side anymore.

"Okay, thanks," I answered for every one else. I knew that they wouldn't object to it, some how.

"I'll need to call my mom first though," Mark said. Faith and I agreed.

A half an hour later, we'd all gotten the OK to spend the night at Kyle's house. After a few hours, we'd gotten tired, so Matt, Faith, and Mark and I lay down in our beds and went to sleep. Or at least Kyle and Mark did. Faith and I couldn't sleep so at about midnight, we were up practicing morphing, as strange as that sounds. We got bored of turning into Kyle's lab animals (the ones that _haven't _been experimented on yet) so I got an idea.

"Why don't we try turning into each other?" I asked Faith, putting a white mouse back in its cage.

"Sure," Faith said. "Do you want to go first?"

"All right," I replied, nervously. Faith held out her hand for me to take because I need to acquire her DNA. I took her hand and closed my eyes for a moment, just imagining that I was, well, turning into one of my best friends.

After a minutes or two, I wanted to see if anything was happening yet, so I spun around to one of the many mirrors that lined the lab walls.

I was speechless; all I could do was stare. My long, dark hair had become at least six inches shorter- and red! As I gazed on, I could see my eyes and facial features changing rapidly. My jeans suddenly became several too long. Before 2 minutes were up, I was completely changed.

"Faith, look at-" I began, but Faith was just standing there as if in a trance. Within a few seconds, she snapped out of it. I remembered something about the fact that the animal or what ever calms down and goes into some kind of hypnotic trance when you're acquiring their DNA.

"Oh, my God, it's worked!" Faith said, studying me with wide eyes.

"I know!" It's so weird," I said, turning back to the mirror.

Suddenly, the sound of glass shattering came from the back supply closet.

"What the…" Faith began.

"I'm going to check it out," I started for the back of the lab, "Something's not right."

"Okay. I'll be right there. I'm going to go get a flash light," Faith said, starting for the crash room.

I opened the door, trying to ignore the voice in the back of my head that was screaming at me to turn and run.

The small room was dark, except for the glow from the street light coming in through the broken window.

I made my way to the back.

_Danger! Get out! NOW!_

There was no denying my instincts this time.

I turned to run but stopped short. There was a dark figure blocking my only escape route.

Exley.

And he had a pipe.

He swung at me with full force, but I ducked, the pipe smashing into a cardboard bow, shattering its contents.

All of a sudden, I heard the sound of something cutting through the air. In an instant, there was an unbearable pressure on the right side of my head. Shadows began gathering around the edges of my vision.

I lost all control, my whole body going numb. The room began to spin and I fell into a pile of boxes as everything went black.

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep._

I opened my eyes a tiny bit, the pressure in my head still present. I winced and shut them again.

"Guys?" I said as loud as I could, but my voice only came out as a raspy whisper.

"Oh, thank God!" I heard Faith say next to me, "You're awake!"

It was then that I felt that I was lying in some kind of bed.

"GUYS! Mercedes is awake!" She called at the top of her lungs. I whimpered, clutching my head, every word slicing through it like a dagger.

"Hey," I heard Matt say, "How're you doing?"

I cleared my throat. "Okay, I guess." I remembered my run-in with Exley in the supply room. "Did you guys find him?"

"Find who?" Matt asked, confused.

"Exley," I said.

"What? He was here?" Mark asked, alert.

"He hit my on the head," I said, my voice normal again. I opened my eyes all the way, getting them used to the bright lights. I was in the crash room, lying on the bottom bunk. I sat up, the room spinning a bit from the blood rushing from my head. "You mean you didn't even know he was here?"

"No, we just heard the crash and found you passed out," Faith explained.

"Did you see where he went?" Mark asked.

"Nope. While I was in the supply room, I turned around, saw him, and then it was lights-out," I said.

"Then...where is he?" Mark asked.


End file.
